"Framed by the era's visual arts and burgeoning commercial visual culture, these essays offer an unusually imaginative and probing interdisciplinary exploration of--in the succinct phrase of one of its authors--the 'porous boundaries' between the battle front and home front during the Civil War. Home Front's contributors position the reader to see through nineteenth-century eyes, capturing traces of the war in quotidian activities, traumatic events, and the ways their meanings were explicitly and covertly conveyed in fine art, cartoons, prints, sheet music, illustration, pictorial news, decorative stationery, and photography. Informed by the latest scholarship on the home front and the visual record of the war, this book is rich in insight and observation--not to mention an array of evocative images, many of which have long been hidden in the archives."— Joshua Brown, author of Beyond the Lines
"In the sesquicentennial remembrances of the Civil War, much attention has been paid to battles and soldiers, presidents and politics. Home Front is the first book to delve deeply into the visual culture of the Civil War era to explore not just the war itself, but also the impact of that war on those left behind. By presenting a wide variety of visual and cultural materials in conversation with one another, the authors bring a new perspective on how those on the Northern home front dealt with the crisis of the war and its aftermath. These essays provide an important addition to the national collective understanding of the impact of that war on American culture."
— Maurie D. McInnis, author of Slaves Waiting for Sale
"In fascinating and highly original ways, Home Front delves into the visual culture of the Civil War North. It is the first truly interdisciplinary study of this culture, drawing on experts from multiple fields. It is also the first to examine the war's entire visual output—from lithographs and poetry to paintings and cartoons. Bringing to life the look and feel of the era, it is a must read for anyone interested in the Civil War's impact on American life."— Frances M. Clarke, War Stories